At-risk kids at Redmond High School have seen class sizes go up, students pay to play sports ($300) and even get charged a lab fee in chemistry, and teachers scrap planning periods in order to tutor students.

The state's public schools -- Redmond's are among our most innovative -- are enduring a life of gradually deepening cuts: The Washington Legislature passed a recession budget that sliced billions out of education.

At an after work session Tuesday night with half-a-dozen Redmond teachers, I learned the how's and why's of a new worry -- Initiative 1033 on this November's ballot.

The initiative, authored by initiative kingpin Tim Eyman, would slap across-the-board limits on government growth. It uses the Legislature's cut-and-slash 2009 budget as base line in determining future spending levels.

"If this goes through, we will never recover money lost in this budget: We will never fund the class size initiative that voters passed," said Meg Town, who teaches science at Redmond Jr. High.

The teachers talked forcefully of what they do. It's a heckuva lot more than teach core classes five periods a day: The "more" motivates students, opens up career choices, and keeps at-risk kids in school.

They do one-on-one sessions with special needs students. They seek to design new courses for a new economy, in fields from forensics to green jobs. They foster a "niche concept" with clubs -- more than 20 at Redmond High -- that nurture students' interests.

The "more" is what's getting whacked. The Legislature's budget is being felt now: The pains will be magnified and made permanent if voters approve Eyman's initiative. What happens in the classroom is felt in the wider society, argued Peter Saxby, a physics/robotics teacher at Redmond High.

"You have to put something in if you want to innovate and motivate," said Saxby. "It does cost a little bit more to reach all kids. But all kids should have the opportunity to learn, to grow, to find a career path, and -- yes -- to raise their social status."That is what public education is about, the ability to realize one's potential and move across the social strata, whatever one's background. And that is good for the country."

I-1033 would cap state, county and local government revenue growth according to a rigid formula based on population growth and inflation. Income above the limits would go to property tax relief.

A similar measure was enacted by Colorado voters in 1992, but suspended -- at the urgings of a Republican governor -- in 2005.

Under the initiative's spending limits, Colorado dropped from 35th to 49th among the 50 states in state and local spending on K-12 education as a share of personal income.

There's a variation with I-1033, spoken by those who've watched what Proposition 13 did to public education in California, and erosion of Colorado's standing."Things did not go to hell in a hand basket right away," said Robyn Kunkler, a math teacher at Redmond High.

Instead, she argued, the impact of severely restricted spending will be felt gradually and for a generation: A generation of students will be deprived of "growth" classes and quality time with teachers, and talented faculty will depart in frustration to other fields.

"We already see a 50 percent turnover of teachers in the first five years, and that is going to go up," predicted Maynard Garritty, a Redmond High teacher some of whose classes are targeted toward at-risk, high-needs kids.

It's started, thanks to budget decisions made in Olympia and heavily influenced by the Legislature's new generation of East Side Democrats.

Kate Alexander, a Redmond High science teacher, is grappling with larger classes including at-risk students.

During a recent laboratory, she recalled, "I literally looked up and eight kids were calling my name: You can't do a lab in conditions like that." As well, Alexander added -- noting the I-1033 spending formula - school supplies are going up at a rate faster than inflation.

Garrity mentioned a new state requirement. Students must complete a culminating project as condition of graduation.

"It used to be that teachers received a small stipend to work with students in a small setting," he said. "This year, the money went away. The kids have to do it. We have to help them. There's no money. The level of involvement is up to the individual teacher."

Will Washington's electorate do its homework on I-1033? Or will it just skim over the deceptively alluring ballot description in the voter pamphlets?

The Puget Sound area dreams big dreams. Our mill towns have become technology centers: Seattle is, for all its nervousness, a much-envied city of world-class research and innovation.

By freezing in spending limits, we may freeze out brainpower needed to recover and grow our economy.